Traffic school can help you reinstate a suspended license and eliminate points from your driving record, reducing your car insurance bill. Rather than taking courses in person, many states allow you to take traffic school online.
To the point, here are Car Talk's recommendations:
Save time and money with online classes
First off, we're using the generic term "Traffic School" here, but your state may call it a "Defensive Driving Course." The terms are interchangeable.
The first thing to consider is whether or not your state actually accepts traffic school as a way to remediate a license suspension or an insurance surcharge. Not every state allows you to take traffic school to correct a suspension, a fine, or a surcharge.
For example, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts -- where Car Talk is headquartered -- if you lose your license, you lose your license and there's no way to get it back until the suspension period is completed. Similarly, if you're assessed a surcharge on your insurance, it'll stick around like a bad cold. Massachusetts has a friendly-sounding program called the "Safe Driver Insurance Plan" that starts each driver at a neutral 15 points. Go for a year without a surchargeable incident? Your point score lowers and your insurance rate goes down. Get a traffic ticket? Your point total goes up and so does your insurance -- for SIX YEARS afterward.
So if you happen to be from one of the 15 states that does have a way of reducing those surcharges, or getting your license back after it's been suspended, consider yourself lucky.
Once you've determined that traffic school can help you get your license back or reduce your insurance cost, you've often got several choices for completing traffic school:
To recap, based on our analysis we recommend:
iDriveSafely See discounts for iDriveSafely »
Improv Traffic School
How did we select them? Here are some things we looked for and recommend you consider as well:
The biggest criteria we used to select online traffic schools was honesty. There are dozens and dozens of companies online that will be more than happy to sell you something, no matter what state you happen to reside in. But they get slippery when we investigated whether or not those states actually accept traffic schools or defensive driving classes to either reinstate a suspended license or reduce insurance surcharges.
On several websites, you can select any state and be provided with a generic $30 to $40 class. That class promises to -- in one example -- "Improve your driving," but there's no language that suggests it will reduce a surcharge or help get a driver's license reinstated. When we investigated deeper into the FAQs, the answers were predictably murky. In this example, we knew that Massachusetts doesn't accept any kind of traffic school for reinstating licenses or reducing surcharges. Yet:
Q: How do I know if the (Shady Company Name) Massachusetts online defensive driving course is approved for dismissing a Massachusetts traffic ticket?
A: We recommend that you contact your Massachusetts court in order to be sure that the (Shady Company Name) Massachusetts online driver safety course is approved for dismissal of a Massachusetts traffic ticket.
Reputable companies that offer state-sanctioned traffic school or defensive driving programs (see our deep investigation into iDriveSafely here) are clear that the classes they offer are accepted to reduce fines or surcharges, and they offer them only for the states in which they're licensed.
All of the companies we've recommended are licensed. That's not saying much, though. The states that license these schools seem to have a pretty generous licensing program. California has a list of traffic school providers in the thousands.
Costs for these classes vary pretty significantly. Some areas cheap as $5 and they'll tout that in the name of the company, like "$2 Traffic School". Costs for the more legitimate providers are in the $20 range, depending on the state.
We visited a lot of traffic school websites with really sketchy names and even sketchier websites. We've checked all of the sites we've recommended with Google's Transparency Report.
We narrowed our recommendations to online drivers ed programs that are highly popular on the web (as evidenced by number of users) and have at least 90% positive reviews on customer feedback websites that have at least 1,000 reviews from customers of the drivers ed company, and where applicable, top ratings with the Better Business Bureau.
Save time and money with online classes
A: Traffic school or defensive driving school is a service provided by a third party that allows a driver to either reinstate a suspended license or reduce insurance surcharges that have been assessed because of a traffic ticket or a reportable accident.
A: States that accept traffic school as a means of reinstating a suspended license or reducing a surcharge often allow drivers to take classes online. However, it's important to check our articles on those state-specific traffic schools to know for sure whether or not online traffic school is offered in those states.
A: While your location has a big impact on the answer, our research showed that nationally, Aceable traffic school, iDriveSafely, Improv traffic school were highly rated by those who took the class.
A: This depends on your state. Most online traffic schools have similar prices at the state level. But we suggest checking rates online.
A: Costs for traffic schools vary by state and by the provider. Check our state-specific articles for more detailed information on pricing.
A: The length of time for traffic school depends on the state and the severity of the violation. Some states allow a four-hour traffic school for basic reinstatement or surcharge reduction, while more serious violations require an eight-hour class. Check our state-specific articles to learn more about what your state requires.
A: This is a fair question. In some states, traffic schools are not state-approved and will not reduce points on your insurance. We've written articles about many individual states' policies. You can also check with your state DMV.
A: The good news is that all of the information and education you need to pass the test online are included in the program. You only need to follow along and answer the questions. You are allowed to retake the quizzes and look back for answers.
A: This depends on the state where you received the tickets. Be sure to check our state-specific articles for more information.
A: In general, yes, but you'll want to know as much as possible about what your individual state requires before you make a decision about traffic school.
A: Most people investigating traffic schools aren't looking for an insurance discount as much as they are looking to eliminate a surcharge on their insurance. Most states have a points system that starts at the neutral level -- 15 points, for example -- and adds points for each violation or reportable accident. You can eliminate some of those points by taking traffic school in some states. See our state-specific articles to learn more.
A: Again, this depends on the state. In most states "defensive driving courses" are generic driving classes that may improve your skills, but won't reduce points or reinstate a license. However, in Florida, "Defensive Driving Courses" will reduce your points or reinstate a license. That term is interchangeable with "Traffic School" in states like California and Texas.